Redondo Beach And Former UCLA Player Continues Socal Tennis March

Four Singles Quarterfinals And Doubles Final Set For Friday In Fountain Valley Professional Event

Karue Sell may have been born and raised in Brazil, but he’s taken quite a liking to Southern California, as the Redondo Beach and four-year UCLA player has won 20 straight matches in his last two tournaments in Claremont and Fountain Valley.

Thursday, at the Los Cab USTA Men’s Futures $15,000 event in Fountain Valley, Sell advanced to the singles quarterfinals and doubles final, which will be played Friday afternoon. Sell won the Claremont USTA Pro Classic earlier this month. In both the Claremont and Fountain Valley events, Sell did it the hard way: advancing through qualifying into the main draw.

“I’m just playing very well right now,” said Sell, 23, who took most of 2017 off from the Futures tour to focus on volunteer coaching at Pepperdine University and playing men’s open events. “I didn’t sit around while (not playing ATP-sanctioned events), but Claremont was my first points event in a while. I’m just riding the wave from Claremont and hopes it continues.”

Sell’s quarterfinals opponent Friday will be Igor Marcondes, also from Brazil, whom he will play at 10 a.m. Ryan Shane, who won the event in 2015, also advanced Thursday, as did second-seeded Benjamin Lock, of Zimbabwe, and Americans Henry Craig and Ronnie Schneider.

Sell and former UCLA teammate Martin Redlicki will also play in the doubles final Friday, against Americans Schneider and Elliott Orkin. The past and present Bruins Friday beat the top-seeded duo tandem of Mattias Franco Descotte, of Argentina, and American Robert Galloway.

Lock, who defeated American Sam Riffice Thursday in a fierce three-set battle with tie-breakers in the first and third, and Shane, who beat fellow American Isiah Strode in two sets, are the only seeded singles players remaining. Unseeded Belgian Michael Geerts, who knocked off top-seeded Takyani Garanganga in the first round, plays Shane Friday.

Part of the developmental tour of the USTA, the free event, which ran for 18 years in Costa Mesa before moving to Fountain Valley last year is an opportunity to see the future of professional tennis today.

The singles final will be held Sunday, Oct. 1.

The final Sunday will also feature a free junior play day for kids designed to introduce them to the game of tennis. It will run from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.Contact Los Caballeros Racquet & Sports Club 714-756-8560 for more info and to sign up.

Last year’s event was won by Sebastian Fanselow, a German citizen, who beat Takanyi Garanganga, of Zimbabwe, in straight sets. Fanselow nearly claimed a second title, but he and his partner, Sebastian Bader, were defeated by the New Mexican brother tandem of Hunter and Yates Johnson in the doubles final.

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The USTA Southern California Section, which was founded in 1887, is one of the 17 sections of the United States Tennis Association.

Comprising Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties, the SCTA is one of the smallest in area of the USTA’s 17 sections.